Leather Coral Against Surface

Blogged by Simon on August 06, 2010 8:00am | Last updated by Simon on August 06, 2010 10:22am | Category: Underwater Photography | Get a Print Get a Print |

Palm Island Leather CoralThis otherwise average photo of Leather Coral (Sarcophyton sp.) makes a great reference. Why? For once i nailed the sunball exposure in manual mode. Water visibility was about 10-12m, depth exactly 6m in tropical blue water at Palm Island, off Townsville. Camera pointing upwards at 45 degree angle with Tokina 10-17mm lens.

I used both YS-250s flashes above the dome port and pointing outwards as fill light for the coral. The flash was set to M-TTL with +0.3EV. Camera settings: Nikon D300, f/14 for 1/100s which is perfect here for the sunball. Post processed for levels and saturation to bring out the colors, but only minimal. This shot is pretty much an “as is” effort which, if you know me, doesn’t happen very often.

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Old Wife

Blogged by Simon on August 03, 2010 8:00am | Last updated by Simon on August 03, 2010 10:06am | Category: Underwater Photography | Get a Print Get a Print |

Old Wife (Enoplosus Armatus)Old Wife (Enoplosus armatus) closeup also from recent night dive in Chowder Bay. For those of you who know the site well, this one was shot a little further out, 16m down at the two sunken yachts. I usually wouldn’t take my macro setup down there, but did on this dive which turned out to be a good idea.

This is one of my recent fish portraits where I crop parts of the subject in favour of zooming into the face. Definitely want to try more like these.

Camera settings: Nikon D300, 60mm, f/22 for 1/125s, ISO 200. Processed for levels, saturation and with the Glamour Glow filter in Color Efex Pro for Aperture.

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Eastern Smooth Boxfish

Blogged by Simon on July 31, 2010 1:00am | Last updated by Simon on July 31, 2010 2:08am | Category: Underwater Photography | Get a Print Get a Print |

Eastern Smooth Boxfish (Anoplocapros inermis)Today something new from Sydney. Eastern Smooth Boxfish (Anoplocapros inermis) photographed at night in Chowder Bay and commonly found inside the harbour.

According to the Australian Museum, “the colouration of the Eastern Smooth Boxfish changes with growth. Tiny juveniles are completely yellow. As the fish ages it develops brown spots”, so this one is probably in his late teens.

I’ve seen these around a fair bit but wasn’t able to get id to date. Like all puffers, these are pretty friendly which makes them good subjects.

Camera settings: Nikon D300, 60mm macro, f/22 for 1/125s, ISO 200. Post processed for levels, saturation and black point. Added definition to bring out skin texture. The black background is done through small aperture and fast shutter speed, which worked great here.

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Hunting Trevally

Blogged by Simon on July 28, 2010 8:00am | Last updated by Simon on July 28, 2010 11:33am | Category: Underwater Photography | Get a Print Get a Print |

Hunting TrevallyMy SS Yongala photos from the last trip are slowly but surely coming to an end – time to go back and shoot some more I suppose :)

This was shot upwards from the stern, where the trevally (Carangidae) roam. I have to admit i failed at getting good schooling photos though i tried a few of them. Most shots were blurry where my shutter speed wasn’t fast enough and they are generally hard to frame when hunting. Second, I need to put the flash at an angle sideways to avoid overflashing their silvery bodies (mental note for the next trip: proper exposures for schools of silvery bodied fish).

This photo is an exception and worked because it’s available light only, it is one of the exposures that accidentally happened while the flash recycled. Camera settings: Nikon D300, Tokina 10-17mm, f/8 for 1/125s, ISO 200. Post processed in Silver Efex Pro, Graduated Neutral Density and with a dodge brush in Photoshop.

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